Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Grading the Hawkeyes in the loss to Ohio State, Scott Dochterman joins the show
Episode Date: October 9, 2024On today’s episode of the Locked on Hawkeyes Podcast, host Trent Condon takes a deep dive into Iowa’s disappointing 35-7 loss to Ohio State. Using player breakdowns from Pro Football Focus, Trent ...dissects the performance of each key player and what the numbers tell us about the team's struggles. Where did things go wrong on both sides of the ball, and which players stood out—either positively or negatively?Then, Trent is joined by Scott Dochterman of The Athletic for an insightful interview on the state of Iowa football. They discuss the gap between Iowa and the top teams in the Big Ten, exploring why the Hawkeyes continue to falter against elite competition. Scott offers a deeper look into how far this team really is from competing at the top level, and what changes might be necessary for the Hawkeyes to get back into the Big Ten’s upper echelon.From individual player breakdowns to a broader look at Iowa's future, this episode gives you the full perspective on the current state of Hawkeye football. Don’t miss it!Locked on Hawkeyes is your go-to source for all things Iowa football—reaction, analysis, and expert insights every week.For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ROYDownload Roy for iOS or Android and enter referral code LOCKED ON and you’ll automatically be entered into a sweepstakes to win $5,000 cash. Visit JoinRoy.com for additional details. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited. Get off the sidelines and into the NIL game with Roy.ZBioticsGo to zbiotics.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at checkout. ZBiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.RobinhoodRobinhood Gold provides the privileges of a high net worth for any net worth. These generous benefits are now available for only $5/month. The new gold standard is here with Robinhood Gold.Sign up at robinhood.com/goldTerms apply, for product specific disclosures visit robinhood.com/gold. Investing involves risk. Rate may change. Gold membership is offered by Robinhood Gold, LLC.LinkedInThese days every new potential hire can feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. That’s why LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team, faster and for free. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
Transcript
Discussion (0)
It's time for one final look back at the Ohio State game.
We grade the tape with help from Pro Football Focus.
Plus, we talk with Scott Dockerman from The Athletic.
All today, Locked on Hawkeyes.
You are Locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
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We start today with a look at the numbers from Pro Football Focus and a rewatch of the 35-7 loss to Ohio started. We start today with a look at the numbers from Pro Football Focus and a
rewatch of the 35-7 loss to Ohio State. Our second time through, I didn't get much better. In fact,
some of the positives maybe that I took away and was taking away on Saturday
started to dissipate a little bit more. The frustrations continue to lie and just
understanding the growing gap between this Iowa football
program and the elites of college football, there was a lot of frustration.
And maybe it was the way that that first half played out, just how quickly it got away in
the third quarter.
A couple of calls that didn't go Iowa's way, and at the time, you're just going to throw
your hands up and say, well, what are you going to do?
I didn't go in with a much level of optimism in
that football game. And we saw that Ohio State is just a lot better football team than Iowa is.
But watching it a second time, the frustrations I think started to grow, the plays that were there,
the execution that was not there, some of the decisions throughout the course of the game.
So a couple of things that really jumped off was first, I was inability to get away from doing anything on first down
outside of running the football.
And it felt very much like what we've seen over the past decade plus
where the ability to go out there and compete and try to,
I understand, you don't want to work behind the chains.
Like I get that.
I completely understand the thought process.
Second and 12, second and 10 against this Ohio State defense, you're dead.
With the way I was built, you're done and it's over.
So even if you can get three, four yards on first down, at least you feel like with your
running game that you have a chance to do something.
But boy, to not do anything on first down, to not take shots, not even have some simple
passes, you know, just something different. It was a very basic game plan, if you will, from Iowa. And against
Ohio State, you can't do that. That was some frustration that certainly allied for me. But
let's get into the numbers from Pro Football Focus. Again, the reason that we go through this
exercise is I think it gives us an opportunity to kind of just mesh up and marry together what we're seeing with our eyes, watching it for a second time,
and then seeing if that jives with at least one person that grades it. Remember, this is just
one dude sitting in his basement, sitting in his office. That's great in the film.
This is not a great collection of 15, 20 minds of football minds altogether. It's one guy's opinion as he grades it,
and it goes through every play and every player and gives them a grade.
So this is what it spits out.
At the quarterback position, Cade McNamara was bad.
47.4 overall grade.
The limited time, Brendan Sullivan, a 68.6.
Cade McNamara had a very good first half.
Outside of the one throw that we talked about to Caden
as he was breaking free.
Now, remember the play previous, he was also absolutely drilled to the turf and landed
on by a defensive player that I thought was not allowed anymore, unless you're in the
horseshoe, apparently.
But I guess that could be something.
He just, he's not willing to really step into those kind of throws,
and he has to.
He doesn't have the arm strength to be able to just lollygag it out there
and let that one short.
What could have been, right?
No surprise, quarterback numbers are not great.
A couple other things.
Caleb Johnson had a couple runs in there.
Of course, had the touchdown run.
65.5 seems about fair, right, in in their grading scale Kamari Bolton is 63
58 for Jazzy on Patterson that was another thing I thought Jazzy was out there a little bit more
than he actually was throughout the course of that one look 5.7 yards per carry for Caleb Johnson
going into the game we would have taken it but we know the way that that kind of played out
wasn't a true indication of the way the game went for Kalem. The wide receiver group, Reese Van Der Zee, a 65,
followed up by Jacob Gill, a 62.
I think the most surprising part of Jacob Gill's number,
because we've been so used to him being a great run blocker,
is his run blocking game was just a 44.9.
Van Der Zee's was better, a 59 run blocking grade out of him.
TJ Washington played just a couple of snaps.
Jarrett Bowie had the first down that, for some they didn't give a first down and then, you know,
the fake punt that didn't happen. They came out of that one. Dan Howard was out there running
around a little bit more. And we mentioned a Legion and his opportunity down the field
that was left short on that one tight end Luke cliche. We talked about this last week. I thought
it was one of the avenues for at least I would hang around. He had his best game certainly this season with a 73.3 grade.
Run blocking okay.
Pass grade though is 78.
That's very good.
Addison Estrenga, who Iowa will be without this week,
announced today in the press conference by Kirk Ferentz.
Looks like he is banged up with a sling.
A 50-49 for Zach Ortworth.
They're going to need more out of Ortworth.
Bakuzi, just basically a blocking tight end out there. They're going to need more out of Ortworth. Bacuzzi, just basically your blocking tight end out there,
is going to be a step-up game.
If they're going to go in that 12 personnel with two tight ends on the field
and one running back, Zach Ortworth is going to have to be a big one
against this Washington team.
And then the offensive line, pretty dreadful.
Your highest-ranked guy out of the starters was Logan Jones at a 60.
Same for both Stevens and Nick DeYoung came in late.
They're all 60. Jennings Dunker at 55. Connor Colby, 52.9. Brutal. Cade Pieper didn't play much,
48. And Mason Richman was a turnstile, 44.9. Passed blocking grade at a 49 for him. He was
and the run blocking game was even worse. This is the concern that we
had coming into the year with this offensive line. Though they're experienced, they're just not good
enough. And you can blame the coach. You can blame the recruiting. You can blame defections. You can
blame Caden Proctor. Wherever you want to point the blame, you can put it at Kirk Ferentz, who is
an offensive line guru. This group hasn't been good enough. And though they're improved and they've
improved over the last couple of years,
they don't have that ass kicker, right?
They just don't have that guy that can go out there and maul people.
We talked about the game going back a decade plus ago against Ohio State,
where Iowa was in a tie going into the fourth quarter against the Buckeyes.
Well, they had Brandon Scherr, and he was that guy.
That guy's not on this line, and they greatly missed that
because Iowa football's offensive line in general over the last decade
has not been great.
It has not been elite.
Even the year they won the Joe Moore Award,
that was not a great offensive line in comparison to what we've seen
certainly in the early days of Kirk Ferentz.
Not the early, early days, but by year three, four, five of that stretch.
And a big reason for that, we've had individual pieces, Tristan Wirfs,
Leonard Baum, odd and odd and odd. We've had dudes, Jackson, another one, Laird Jackson.
They've had those individual pieces, but there's been too many other weak spots.
And now as a whole, you have guys that aren't left tackles playing left tackle.
You have guys that look good running around in shorts,
but on the football field struggle in the middle of that line.
And that's what we're left with.
It's a great disappointment.
And that will be something I think we'll lament with this offense as a whole.
So those are the numbers offensively.
Defensively, let's jump over there.
The defensive line couldn't get pressure.
And I know it's difficult.
I know the Ohio State offensive line is really good.
But when you walk into a football game and you let Will Howard step back there
and basically do whatever he wants, you slow down the run game.
You didn't give up the huge yardage plays.
But they were still able to get five, six yards whenever they wanted.
We saw that throughout.
And that's what you're left with.
So the pressure numbers, not great.
Six pressures on 27 drop back passes,
and that's one of the reasons
that he goes 21 to 25 on the day.
Aaron Gray's the top ranked guy
in the defensive line with a 62.
Brian Allen a 60.
57 for Deontay Craig.
Thought he played all right.
Maxwell Allen a 57. 53 for Hercut.
Wyatt Black at 52.5.
I thought he was better than that.
His tackle grade was good.
Didn't get much in the run game, though, even with that fourth down stop.
Excuse me.
It's a cough.
I'm not cracking up here.
I'm not crying.
No.
Sorry, still battling the cold a little bit.
So that's what we had up front.
Linebackers, Jay Higgins stud.
Goes without saying, 87 grade for him.
Jade Harrell played a little bit, a 69.
Carson Shire also got to play late in the game with a 62.
I know they're excited about his future.
Kyler Fisher was out there a lot more as they went away from the 4-3
and away from the 4-2-5 with the cash position.
Played more 4-3.
You could tell every time that they were passing,
they were targeting Kyler Fisher.
I had some memories of the 2006 game, was it?
The night game at Kittick Stadium when number one, Ohio State, came to town
and we remember how that one ended up.
Nick Jackson, not a great game for Nick with a 50 grade out of him.
Defense backfield was led by Sebastian Castro.
He was excellent.
Him and along with Jay Higgins were the studs.
Jamari Harris played well with a 74.5.
Zach Lootmer played a little bit in the dime package.
Jalen Watson, a freshman, got some playing time at 65 out of Wampa.
Didn't play a ton.
Nestor also got in there.
Quinn Schulte, not great, 61.
Deshaun Lee at 54.4.
You know what? That's actually okay
against those ridiculous wide receivers.
And here we are. Numbers
say what they say
from pro football focus. What we
know is it wasn't pretty. Let's talk
to Scott Dockerman from The Athletic. Doc always
provides a good perspective on this Iowa
football team. Doesn't get as high
and low maybe as I do at times.
Just a frustration that continues to build from that one.
We'll talk with Scott Dockerman, break things down from his perspective
as he was in Columbus.
We'll do it as we continue on Locked on Hawkeyes.
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Change the game.
Let's get Scott Dockerman in here.
Covers the Big Ten. Co covers college football over at the athletic
he was in columbus on saturday afternoon by the way just press some more breaking news
leshawn williams hawkeye running back is now uh according to his instagram he has entered the
transfer portal so he too is moving on oh scott dockerman trend ken how are you i'm doing well
guys how are you doing well uh really enjoyed, guys. How are you? Doing well.
Really enjoyed your piece
following the game, Doc. I thought you laid that
out perfectly. Just, you
know, all the opportunities out
there against, you know, quality
teams that just have not gone
their way recently.
Some of the decisions
are, you know, backing out of
some of the decisions, seemingly, know backing out of some of the decisions seemingly
that were there for the uh making um something's got to change i think doc i really do and i know
what where everybody's mind's going to go uh right away when you say that but uh we just seemingly
this program seemingly is spinning the wheels in a lot of areas. Yeah, there's some of that.
And I think in some ways we combine the Ohio State performance
with the other seven, and in other ways you really kind of need to remove it
because I did see some things in this game that was a little bit unique
than the others.
The others were absolutely pathetic offense against some of those teams
you know tennessee penn state those types of games this one i saw a superior team that iowa actually
fought pretty hard with but there's just no way they're going to win i mean i think ohio state's
as good as any team in the country you know and whereas some of the others you know michigan of
course won it last year but i I think this team is different.
So there's part of me that says, yes, you guys will look at this thing holistically.
That, you know, in eight games, they've been dominated by ranked opponents.
And then there's other parts of me that say, don't overreact to this one game today or, well, a couple days ago.
Because you're playing a team on a different tier.
And when you take the mistakes out of that,
you played hard, you weren't going to win,
but it wasn't that bad.
So I think you've got to look at it both ways in context.
So as we've seen, not just on Saturday,
but against these upper echelon teams,
the old formula of Kirk Ferentz, let's hang around, hang around,
and maybe something will happen in the second half.
It just isn't working.
So what can be done?
What can be done to be unleashing, even if you are hanging around like they did this week,
like they did against Michigan in the Big Ten championship game for a while,
like they did for a half against Penn State, even not playing well?
What's that next step?
What needs to be done to take the hanging around
and then actually be able to hang around in the fourth quarter?
Have a quarterback who can make plays.
Have a quarterback who can throw the ball down the field
and hit big pass plays and have somebody who can catch touchdown passes.
That's really all it is.
That's the difference between, you know, I laid it out from 2008 through that Penn State game in 21 that they won, you know, the three versus four game.
And there were eight made against top 10 teams. The difference was that they made play.
And most of them were made by quarterbacks that were stretching drives that weren't killing drives.
And that's that's really the difference i mean when you look back at
i mean no i remember writing that nate stanley um was better than everybody was thinking of course
everybody's like oh he's terrible get rid of him all that stuff well you know it did through 68
touchdown passes and you see the way he was able to perform against some of those teams um you know
throwing five touchdown passes against
ohio state 17 and that sort of thing that is the difference it's being able to magnify the passing
game now there are again ohio state is a different animal i mean they've won there they haven't won
there since 1991 and this is as good of a team as they've had so uh but overall if they can get a
quarterback who can make plays at critical junctures and receivers who can do things i don't
think this team's that far away doc and and uh you know you take a look at the at the both rosters
and i'm looking at at iowa's and i see two kids that could start at ohio state uh as good as they
are defensively i mean higginsiggins is an incredible player. He truly
is. In a position that I was at, a bunch of really good players recently. Higgins is as good as there
is. And then Sebastian Castro, Doc. Yeah, he made that. Noel beat him, right? In the inside,
beat him on that play. And I guess that kind of lingers with some people. But Castro is playing
an incredible high level. So is Higgins.
I think both of those guys would be Buckeyes or start for the Buckeyes.
Yeah.
And why a black would as well.
And I think Nick Jackson would,
I think if Ohio state's vulnerable anywhere,
it's probably second level.
They're average at linebacker.
They're really good up front,
but I think why a black is equally as good as any of those players up there.
Maybe Aaron Graves is in that category. Um, Sebastian Castro for sure is, um, you know,
but they've got some, obviously they've got some talent, you know, they, they recruited a high
level and then paying a high level. Yeah. So they, they paid to keep their guy. I mean,
they're much better on the edge. I mean, that's one key on Iowa's defense. That's,
I mean, they're much better on the edge.
I mean, that's one key on Iowa's defense that's been a problem for them is edge rush or edge disruption.
But overall, you know, and then Jeremiah Smith is as freakish of an athlete
as I've seen, and he's still really young.
So, you know, get ready, Big Ten.
You're going to see him two more times through.
Yeah, I don't know that I've seen anybody, you know,
that can play like that at his age. I thought Marvin Harrison was the bomb a few years ago.
Look at this guy.
They just get better and better.
They just keep stacking on top of each other.
With that, the news today, Caleb Brown, I don't think it's a shock to anybody
after the offseason, the disappointment,
just how little we've seen of him this year.
He's going to enter the portal.
LaShawn Williams may be a little bit more of a surprise.
He was banged up, got hurt in spring football,
got hurt again during August camp,
and a guy that was their leading rusher a year ago.
Do we read anything more into it than just what's the surface level
of kind of what we found out, and it makes sense for both of these guys?
What do you read into both of those?
I don't read much into it. I mean mean this is the way the world works these days and i think when you look at leshawn williams it just hasn't worked out for him this year he's been injured
the whole time he's had a hamstring issue uh caleb johnson of course has come on and had a
tremendous season thus far and i would expect it to continue the rest of the way.
And Jazz Patterson has played really well at Duke.
Mario Moulton has.
There's not a lot of room there, and he's only got one more year left.
So he, you know, LaShawn Williams needs to fake, you know,
he's not going to the NFL if he can't play this year.
So this makes a lot of sense.
Now, whether he leaves or not, you know, that's his call.
I mean, who knows?
I mean, if Caleb Johnson goes to the NFL, nfl and you know there might be a chance but i i don't know i doubt
it but i i would say that with uh caleb brown huge disappointment uh came in you know and he was a
huge disappointment in ohio state and you know left there came to i, either A, wasn't utilized, or B, wasn't able to grasp the offense, had some issues off the field.
And he reached this point in the season and decided to punt again for his third different team.
And I think he was a massive disappointment. That's really unfortunate.
Doc, what's it going to take for Iowa to get a quarterback?
Money.
Is that it?
I mean, is it all that?
Or even if you've got the money, do you look at what kind of offense Iowa runs?
And maybe he's not quite as good somewhere else,
but you've got a better chance to show your skills.
I mean, why can't Iowa get in the conversation to bring in a quarterback
that hasn't worked for McNamara?
I was one of the ones that thought, you know, this is a pretty good get.
And Ferentz apparently broke some rules knowing that he had to get this type of quarterback.
But what's it going to take?
Opportunity and a little bit of money.
That's it.
Really, their problem has been who's been evaluating the quarterbacks
more than it's been actually getting the quarterbacks.
Because, I mean, there are chances, you know, when they grab spencer petras zach wilson was sitting there
and won't come to iowa you know you look back over the previous decade and they had four nfl
draft picks at that position ricky stanzi you know jake rudolph before he left cj bethard and
and uh and date stanley you know so they have you know that that position will allow you to play
at a high level it's got to be coached right it's got to be evaluated right and that was really
lacking for several years I mean you look back at all the recruiting mistakes and that they've blown
I mean Deuce Hogan and Alex Padilla, you know, Spencer, I probably wouldn't put in that category, but, but you know,
the list goes on and on Joey Labus,
whether they didn't like him enough to want to play him or,
or he was a failure or Carson may. I mean, every year you look at that,
you go, wow, what a misidentification.
Then you bring in in the portal of Deacon Hill. What?
Kate is a guy that I look at and say, say you know i think the it's the chicken or the
egg it was the team around him that helped in 2021 you know so you look at all those things
now maybe he's better than what he showed the other day again you got to look at who they played
they played a great team but um if he can't get much better, then they're just spinning their wheels.
So before the show, Ken goes, well, what do you think is going to happen this weekend?
I said the win.
Because this is what Kirk Ferentz does, back against the wall.
I believe this is his greatest part of a coach is his ability when adversity is there,
that his teams respond seemingly every single time they are there
and they're going to show up in a big time way do you anticipate the same do you anticipate we're
going to see another fair and special against the Washington team I think it's a lot better than
most anybody thought they were going to be coming into the season that they'll be ready to go
Saturday morning that has been that is the hallmark of his hall of fame career because every time that
their backs have been against the wall whether it's on the field or it's been off-field situations,
they handle those situations so well.
They believe in their coaches and they believe in Kirk.
That is really what has enabled them to get up off the deck and fight.
They're kind of like Rocky Balboa.
Whenever they hit the ground, they get back up.
They're kind of like Rocky Balboa, you know, and whenever they hit the ground, man, they get back up.
I, you know, great examples of being in 2016 getting flattened at Penn State, giving up 600 yards and then coming back and beating Michigan, which was one of the best teams I thought was going on, you know, 14, 13.
They were number two in the country, allowed like 19 percent on third down.
And, you know, they're able to pull that out. Plus, the list goes on and on.
I expect that – I'm not going to – I mean, I think that they should win.
They are favored to win.
I think this will be a really good competitive game,
and this will be a really important game for Iowa and Washington, of course, too.
But I do think that this is – they've got a chance here to kind of get this out of their system.
They've got a schedule that they're capable of competing in, and I still think this is a pretty good team.
I think this is a good running game.
I mean, some of the things people were complaining about the other day were even worse overreactions than normal.
And I'm like, you guys really got to stop it.
This is going too far.
When you talk
about the offensive line, this is a good offensive
line.
They played a really good opponent, and
they couldn't pass the ball very well.
They had an open receiver early in the first
half, and if
Cade McNamara gets the ball to
I think it was Weegin, if he gets the ball there,
they got a chance. In the third to, I think it was Weegin, if he gets the ball there. He does, yep. I mean, they got a chance.
And, you know, in the third quarter when, you know, he's getting strips,
it's because they're far down.
They got to throw.
So, you know, I still think this is a really good team.
I just don't think it's clearly not on the level of Ohio State.
They are final night material.
Iowa is not in that category.
Well put.
Scott Dockerman from The Athletic.
Doc, what do you got coming up
this week that we look forward to reading?
Yeah, I'm going to Nashville
on Wednesday. Oh, good. For the
big summit between, you know,
Big Ten and SEC. So it's been kind of a
busy couple of days doing a lot of stuff on that. That's what I'm writing about
right now. It's somewhat what the ADs and the Big 10 have told me about going in there and i'll have that
out uh tomorrow and and then some trap games coming up for uh for the top 25 for my college
football playoff story on wednesday so uh looking at number 11 iowa state i think this weekend is a
trap game if i've ever seen one.
So anyway, those are the first couple of days.
And then, of course, whatever comes out in Nashville.
Have you heard the request for the four guaranteed spots? Is that real in the playoff by the SEC and the Big Ten?
It's been discussed.
It's not quite finalized yet, but it'll be right now that it's at least three
is what they're wanting.
And I don't know.
It depends on what.
But that's what a lot of this situation is going to entail is discussion about
how do they work together for the playoff,
and are they going to make a push for 14 teams and then say
we demand to have eight of them or is it going to be something else um that we'll find out a lot
more in nashville and sky doctor man from the athletic talking iowa football we wrap things up
two departures to iowa football kayla brown is gone leshawn williams is gone an indictment of
the iowa football program.
We'll talk about that as we continue Locked on Hawkeyes.
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Trent Conant back with you one final time here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast.
We've got some press conference reactions coming your way tomorrow on the program.
And hopefully later this week, we'll track down Biz,
talk to him a little bit of his perspective on what we're seeing with this Iowa football team. Plus, we've got to talk some basketball.
We had media day earlier this week for the men's basketball team.
Thursday is the women's basketball team.
And a lot of expectations.
Maybe not on the Big Ten scale for the men's team.
I think both the men's and women's teams are going to be better than many people anticipate.
But we'll get to that a little bit later in the week.
Mentioned yesterday, the departures.
Kayla Brown in the transfer portal will enter when the portal opens up.
Same for LaShawn Williams.
The transfer portal will enter when the portal opens up.
Same for LaShawn Williams.
The LaShawn Williams one was a bit of a surprise just because he was such a big part of what they were doing a year ago.
Caleb Johnson was banged up a year ago.
Jazzy on Patterson was up and down.
He was that steadying force.
And without LaShawn a year ago, Iowa doesn't beat Wisconsin.
Without him, they might not beat Nebraska.
Remember, setting up that game-winning field goal by Marshall Meador,
it was a long run by LaShawn Williams that set that up.
And this is a guy that was invested,
but this is a guy that also saw the writing on the wall.
He saw that this is Caleb Johnson's job for this year,
that there are young running backs that they're very excited about
with Patterson, with Moulton, Brevin Dahl, Xavier Williams coming in,
and that carries we're going to be difficult.
So Sean Williams likely is not going to be an NFL running back.
I mean, the path for running backs in general are incredibly difficult.
And you could hear a little bit from Kirk today,
some disappointment, certainly,
but he understood it. Caleb Brown's a different story. And this is a guy that just didn't buy in.
You go back to last season, and we saw his emergence in that final month of the season.
Well, there was also a reason, as injuries were piling up, and just the inability for wide
receivers to do much of anything a year ago. There's a reason he wasn't on the field.
for wide receivers to do much of anything a year ago,
there's a reason he wasn't on the field.
The reason is, well, once, falling asleep in a team meeting.
Then you have the offseason he had with the OWI,
and that wasn't all.
He just didn't buy in.
Love it or hate it, that is the reality.
And if you're not going to do that,
you're not going to play.
Even as talented as Caleb Brown was. And you you're not going to do that, you're not going to play. Even as talented as
Caleb Brown was. And you saw those talent making plays that he had a year ago and that decrepit
offense. He was able to make plays because he's a talented guy. But it's more than just talent.
And if you're not willing to do everything needed to sacrifice, to put in the work,
to make everything right, to make everything happen, we're going to see this play out.
It continues to be difficult for Iowa at the wide receiver position.
As we see it stack up year after year after year,
the departures to the program, guys that don't finish up their eligibility.
What can change?
Offensive improvements, passing game improvements,
a quarterback that can become a playmaker.
All those things will help.
It's kind of got to go hand in hand.
That'll do it for today.
Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every day.
Starting to feel a little bit better.
We're getting back to 100%.
We'll continue to battle here.
I bring you Hawkeye-related content each and every day.
Looking forward to Washington this week.
Should be a fun one.
First time they'll be in Kinnick Stadium for a long time.
Really cool note.
We'll get to that one tomorrow in my notes here
about one of the first times that Washington
made their way to Iowa Stadium at the time.
Now, of course, Kinnick Stadium.
We'll talk about that.
Start to preview the matchup against the Huskies
and can Iowa turn the page after the loss to Ohio State?
We got you covered each and every day. Your team every day on the Huskies. And can Iowa turn the page after the loss to Ohio State? We got you covered each and every day.
Your team every day on the Lockdown Network.
And not just what we're doing here on Lockdown Hawkeyes.
We have a whole lot more.
If you're a Big Ten fan, we got you covered there for your second listen
with the Lockdown Big Ten podcast.
Craig Sheeman does a great job over there putting the Big Ten first.
When everyone else is overlooking it, just talking about the SEC,
all Big Ten all the time with Locked On Big Ten.
You can find it on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for being with us here today.
We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Until then, go Hawks.